The Cost of Education

Now that I've finished my studies and am currently waiting for my result, I have to begin doing what other students on a study loan should be prepared to do. That is, start paying 'em back. *shiver* When I look at the total amount, I couldn't help but feel a lil' bit helpless and upset at the same time. Helpless because the total amount is fucking huge, to me at least, it's nearly RM 50K as it covered both my studies during my diploma (local) and my 3+0 degree (foreign). Upset because there's this question, gnawing in my head, "Do I get my money's worth?".

Looks like I'll be paying my study loan every month till the day I die or if life is good to me, till I'm ridiculously old, wrinkled and my pee pee could no longer function in the way it supposed to. LOL! Though in this aspect, I'm thankful that I have an option. I can apply for a study loan reduction. Fortunately, they (the organisation I owed money to, I won't say which. I think some of you can guess) have a scheme. Depending on your overall result, you can have your study loan reduced by 20%, 50% or even 100% in which you don't have to pay anything at all. I've heard of students who need not pay back anything at all as they have done exceptionally well in their studies. Their study loans automatically become a scholarship of a sort. I, on the other hand, could not possibly ask for that since I'm just an average student. I'm just hoping I can get a reduction. Any amount of reduction.

Now, to the most burning question of all. "Do I get my money's worth?". I couldn't help but wonder if what I've studied so far is worth that amount of money?! My degree's syllabus is pretty up-to-date, I think. Java is THE most in-demand programming language from what I could gather. My diploma's was kinda outdated. Are there people who still use programming languages such as Pascal and COBOL?!! Studying in some way is like an experience. Where in the end, you acquire something valuable from it; knowledge, skills be it verbal, writing or critical thinking, increased perceptiveness etc. Something of use to apply later in life, which is sooner than what I thought it would be. Out of all the years spent studying, the only thing I'm most proud of is my ability to converse a-d-e-q-u-a-t-e-l-y (note, I still become a mumbling mess when I'm nervous) in English. And that, in return, made me a more outgoing person than what I originally am, an introverted person. Coming from a basically Malay-based medium taught during my diploma to an English-based medium in my degree, I realised the importance of the English language. From what I can observed, Malays are so used to being in their own cliques ( I did the same thing too at one time), they lose out many opportunities in polishing up their language and social skills. Being one out of two Malay dudes in my class (there are no Malay girls!) jolted me to come to the conclusion, you are on the losing end if you stayed in that state of mentality. That was one major reason why I chose to study in a private college instead of public universities and I made that reason clear to my parents. They seemed to agree with me too. However, it is their pockets which suffered the most. Shhhh, but that's not the only reason. The guys in private colleges are so much more cuter too. *drool*

All in all, I still don't know whether the money's worth. Yet, I'm glad I got something out of my studies even though, it's not related to the demands of the IT jobs market. I'll be job-searching soon, definitely not in the field of programming. But, who knows?! That's a whole other story! For now, I am gonna try pushing my luck and enter contests where the prizes is a huge buck load of cash. Hehe!